Double Jeopardy
Cases

Morgan County, AL

Daniel Wade Moore

Mar 12, 1999 (Decatur)

Daniel Wade Moore was convicted in 2002 and sentenced to death
for the murder of Karen Tipton. In 2003, Moore's conviction was
overturned due to the prosecution's withholding of exculpatory evidence. In 2005, the prosecution's conduct was found to be so egregious that a
retrial was barred under Double Jeopardy laws. On hearing of this
ruling, a juror declared, “I'm happy with it. I felt that Daniel
didn't do it.” Moore was released, but was reimprisoned four days
later by the court hearing the state's appeal. In 2006, the appeals
court reversed the trial court's ruling and gave Moore the right to a
retrial, but not a dismissal of charges. In Feb. 2008, Moore was
retried, but a mistrial was declared after jurors were unable to agree on a
verdict after 6 days of deliberation. In May 2009, Moore was acquitted
at his third trial. (JD)
(WHNT
19) [12/06]

Bay County, FL

Ronald Joseph, Jr.

May 10, 2006 (Panama City)

“Ronald Joseph, Jr. was wrongly convicted in 2007 for leaving
the scene of an accident, when after hitting a man he drove to a store to
call 911 for help. During his trial the prosecution claimed that neither
the tape of his emergency call for help nor a witness at the store could be
located. The judge declared a mistrial. Ronald Joseph was retried, again
without the prosecution producing the evidence he had called for help, and
he was convicted. Joseph was sentenced to five years in prison. On July
30, 2008 Florida's First District Court of Appeals overturned Joseph's
conviction and ordered his release because the judge shouldn't have declared
a mistrial in the first trial, and because jeopardy had attached, it had
violated his right against double jeopardy for him to have been tried
twice.” – FJDB
(News
Herald)

Cumberland County, NC

Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald

Feb 17, 1970

(Federal Case) Army Captain Jeffrey MacDonald was convicted
of the murder of his wife Collette, 26, and the murders of two daughters,
Kimberly, 5, and Kristen, 2. According to MacDonald, he and his family were
attacked by intruders to their home at 544 Castle Drive in Fort Bragg, a
U.S. military base. MacDonald survived with wounds including a collapsed
lung. MacDonald was acquitted of the murders at a Ft. Bragg Army hearing
and probably would not have been tried again had he not angered the
prosecution by criticizing them during interviews on national TV. MacDonald's Army acquittal meant that he could not be court-martialed, but
he could still be tried in federal court and he was. Before his federal
trial MacDonald invited author Joe McGinniss on his defense team to write a
book and hopefully help to establish his factual innocence. At that trial
MacDonald was unfortunately convicted.Read More by Clicking Here

Summit County, OH

Denny Ross

May 20, 1999

Denny Frederick Ross was tried in Akron for the murder of
18-year-old Hannah Hill. Hill had disappeared one night and her body
was found stuffed in the trunk of her Geo Prizm six days later. She
had been beaten and strangled. Her body was found naked from the waist
down and her bra and shirt were pushed up over her breasts. This
display of her body suggested she was raped, but an autopsy found no
evidence of rape and also determined that she was wearing her corduroy pants
when she died. Hill had been romantic with Ross on the night of her
disappearance and one theory of her murder is that her jealous and abusive
boyfriend, Brad O'Born, had killed her for her infidelity. O'Born had
scratch marks on his neck when police questioned him in the days following
her disappearance.Read More by Clicking Here

Philadelphia County, PA

Walter Ogrod

July 12, 1988

Walter Ogrod was sentenced to death for the 1988 murder of
four-year-old Barbara Jean Horn. The murder occurred near her house at 7245
Rutland Street, close to Cottman Avenue. Four witnesses had seen a man
carrying a TV box in which Horn's body was found. One of the witnesses,
David Schectman, told police he'd interacted with the box carrying man for
11 minutes on St. Vincent St.Read More by Clicking Here

Harris County, TX

Robert Angleton

Apr 16, 1997

Robert Angleton, also known as Bob, was a bookie who took bets
on sporting events. He was charged with murdering his 46-year-old
wife, Doris. Following the murder, Bob told police that he suspected
his brother Roger was the killer. Despite Roger's checkered past, Bob
had employed him in 1989. He fired him less than a year later. After being fired, Roger felt Bob owed him $200,000 and even tried to rob
him of it at gunpoint. Roger then threatened to put Bob out of
business, by reporting him to the IRS. Bob ignored him, but Roger
started making phone calls to customers, posing as an IRS agent.Read More by Clicking Here

Ontario, Canada

Guy Paul Morin

Oct 3, 1984

Guy Paul Morin was tried twice for the
killing of nine-year-old Christine Jessop, his next door neighbor. Jessup
was abducted from her Queensville home on Oct. 3, 1984. Her lifeless body
was found on Dec. 31, 1984 some 33 miles away in the Durham Region. The
body's decomposition was consistent with her death occurring near the time
of her abduction. Morin was arrested in Feb. 1985, and acquitted at trial
in Feb. 1986. The prosecution, however, appealed the acquittal and had it
overturned. Morin was again arrested 5 months after his acquittal and
convicted at retrial in 1992. At both trials the crown employed jailhouse
informants to fill in gaps in its case. DNA tests exonerated Morin in 1995,
and he was later awarded $1.4 million in compensation. A book was written
about the case entitled Redrum The Innocent by Kirk Makin. (Champion)
(IB)
[12/05]

Japan

Govinda Mainali

Mar 9, 1997

Govinda Mainali, a Nepalese migrant worker, was convicted of
the rape and murder of a Tokyo woman. The victim, though a prostitute
by night, was a respected economist for the Tokyo Electric Power Co. Although Mainali initially denied knowing the victim, he later admitted to
investigators that he twice paid her to have sex with him. Mainali
said he had not seen the victim for days prior to her murder. There
were no witnesses to dispute his statement. A condom found at the
scene of the crime contained Mainali's semen. After reviewing an
expert's analysis of the semen, the trial judge ruled that the semen found
was too old to have been produced on the day of the murder. The judge
then stated there was no evidence of Mainali's guilt and acquitted him.

Following Mainali's acquittal, he was held in detention for
over eight months while prosecutors sought a court more receptive to their
case. In Dec. 2000, the Tokyo High Court reversed Mainali's acquittal and
sentenced him to life in prison. The presiding judge, Toshio Takaki, was the
same judge who had granted the prosecution's request to keep Mainali
imprisoned pending appeal. After a few brief hearings that introduced
no new evidence, he wrote that the record from the Mainali's first trial
left no doubt of his guilt. (Japan
Times) (Legal
Affairs) [8/09]